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| − | {{BofAPortal}} | + | {{Navigation Book of Abraham}} |
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| − | {{Summary}} | + | <onlyinclude> |
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| | + | |L=Book of Abraham/Kirtland Egyptian Papers |
| | + | |H=The Kirtland Egyptian Papers |
| | + | |V=<embedvideo service="youtube">gfqFGB4DBHQ</embedvideo> |
| | + | |S=Among the early Book-of-Abraham-related-manuscripts that have survived from the days of Joseph Smith are a number of papers collectively referred to as the "Kirtland Egyptian Papers" (KEP). These pages were written while the Saints lived in Kirtland, Ohio, and were recorded in the general time frame that Joseph was translating the Book of Abraham. They are in the same handwriting of several of Joseph's scribes. |
| | + | |L1=Background and provenance of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers |
| | + | |L2=Purpose of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers |
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| | + | {{:Book of Abraham/Kirtland Egyptian Papers/Background}} |
| | + | {{:Book of Abraham/Kirtland Egyptian Papers/Purpose}} |
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| − | =={{Criticism label}}==
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| − | The following critical claims relate to the KEP:
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| − | #that the KEP were produced prior to the Book of Abraham, and that they therefore represent the "translation working papers" for the Book of Abraham. A chronology of events related to the production of the Book of Abraham produced by Edward Ashment is used by critics to support this claim;
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| − | #that the KEP deal with the Egyptian language, and that they demonstrate that Joseph did not understand Egyptian;
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| − | #that the KEPA demonstrate that the Sensen Papyrus was believed to be the source for the Book of Abraham; and
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| − | #that since the Sensen Papyrus is in fact not the Book of Abraham but an Egyptian Book of Breathings, whatever else the Book of Abraham may be, it is not an accurate translation of an ancient Egyptian text.
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| − | #that the purpose of the KEP was to provide a visible prop in order to convince people that Joseph could indeed translate Egyptian.
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| − | {{CriticalSources}}
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| − | =={{Response label}}==
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| − | ===Background===
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| − | The Kirtland Egyptian Papers (KEP) are a collection of documents written by various individuals, mostly dating to the Kirtland period of Church history (early- to mid-1830s), constituting some sort of study documents relating to the [[Book of Abraham papyri|Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri]].
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| − | {{Detail|/Background|l1=Background and provenance of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers}}
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| − | ===Approaches to the KEP===
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| − | A key assertion claimed by critics is that these documents were produced ''prior'' to the Book of Abraham manuscript, and that they therefore constitute a "smoking gun" that proves that Joseph was making up translations for Egyptian characters taken from the existing fragments of the Joseph Smith Papyri. Critics often refer to these papers as the "translation documents" for the Book of Abraham.
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| − | For many years, the KEP were not well studied. A variety of possible explanations have been offered by LDS researchers over the years.
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| − | {{Detail|/Historical LDS approaches|l1=Historical LDS approaches to the KEP}}
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| − | ==Response==
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| − | ==Were the KEP produced prior to the Book of Abraham?==
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| − | The placement of a translation of the Book of Abraham prior to the production of the KEP renders Ashment's chronology, and the entire discussion regarding which document came before which other documents, irrelevant. The production of the KEP after the Book of Abraham indicates that the KEP does not represent "translation documents" documenting a physical process by which translation was attempted.
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| − | It should be noted that this does not change the relationship of the Book of Abraham to the Joseph Smith Papyri. It does not address the issue of whether or not the text of the Book of Abraham was actually present on the Scroll of Hor (the "long scroll" theory), or whether the scroll was simply a catalyst for revelation (the "short scroll" theory).
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| − | ===The earliest document in the KEP (pre-dating the recovery of the papryi) assigns meanings to non-Egyptian characters, and a later document assigns new meanings to these same characters===
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| − | The earliest datable document in the collection is a letter from W. W. Phelps to his wife describing a selection of the "pure language". It is dated to May of 1835. The document contains a sequence of six characters, three of which may belong to a Masonic cipher. Each character is also given a name, a pronunciation and an explanation. However, what is significant is that all six of these characters appear in an identical order in other KEP documents, except they are ''given different names, sounds and explanations.'' None of these six characters come from the Papyri.
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| − | ===Some source material used in the KEP is taken from sections of the D&C===
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| − | In the KEP, when a character in the Grammar is given multiple degrees, it does so usually by taking the source text and break it up into consecutive pieces. So, the first line might be the first degree, the second line the second degree, and so on. There is evidence that some of the source material in these explanations comes from sections of the D&C rather than the Book of Abraham.
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| − | ==Do the Kirtland "Egyptian" Papers deal with Egyptian?==
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| − | ===Some of the Kirtland "Egyptian" Papers do not contain Egyptian at all===
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| − | The "Egyptian Counting" document which is part of the KEP, like the grammar documents, has a character, a sound, and an explanation for each, yet none of the characters are Egyptian. Nor do they contain a single character from the Joseph Smith papyri.
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| − | ==What was the purpose of the KEP?==
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| − | ===The historical record already indicates that Joseph was interested in encoding certain items===
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| − | The historical record already confirms that efforts were made to encode certain things in order to prevent them from being read and understood by enemies of the Church. An effort to create such an encoding scheme using the KEP fits very well within the existing historical context. The Grammar seems to have been a project that suffered an early termination, and it was not pursued further.
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| − | =={{Conclusion label}}==
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| − | When the [[Book of Abraham papyri|Joseph Smith Papyri]] were recovered and the connection to the KEP first noted, Richard Howard, then historian for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now the Community of Christ), was quoted in the ''New York Times'' as saying that we now knew the ''modus operandi'' by which the translation of the Book of Abraham was created.{{ref|nytimes1}} But this statement was premature. We do not know the ''modus operandi'' at all. If we were to give the complete KEPE, the Joseph Smith Papyri, and the sequence of hieratic symbols in the left margins of the KEPA to someone and then ask that person to recreate the Book of Abraham from those materials, he could not do it. The KEPE reflect a half-dozen phrases from the Book of Abraham, isolated and without context. But the Book of Abraham is a coherent and readily understood English text, while the KEPE is a mishmash of linguistic gobbledygook. It is completely unclear how one could possibly get the one from the other.
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| − | So what is the source of the English Book of Abraham? It would appear that the English text is a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, whatever he thought he was doing in the KEP project. There is ample precedent for the Prophet receiving such coherent revelations before that did not require him to wrestle with deciphering the ancient language of the source text. For example, [[Book of Mormon translation method|Joseph translated the Book of Mormon almost entirely without reference to the gold plates themselves]], and [http://scriptures.lds.org/dc/7 Doctrine and Covenants 7] is a revealed translation of ancient parchment that was never physically given to Joseph.
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| − | The coherent words of the Book of Abraham did not really come from an analysis of the Egyptian materials before Joseph or his scribes; rather, they were uttered by the Prophet and recorded by his scribes in much the same way that all of his revelatory translation projects were done. To the critic, this simply means that Joseph made up the coherent text and dictated it; to the believer, it means that Joseph received the text by revelation and dictated it. The difference between these two points of view is a matter of faith, and not something that any amount of wrangling with the KEP can resolve definitively one way or the other.
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| − | =={{Endnotes label}}==
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| − | #{{note|table1}}John Gee, "Eyewitness, Hearsay, and Physical Evidence of the Joseph Smith Papyri," p. 196.
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| − | #{{note|fgw1}}Until recently this was believed to be W.W. Phelps' handwriting.
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| − | #{{note|tanner1}}''Joseph Smith's Egyptian Alphabet & Grammar,'' Salt Lake City: Modern Microfilm Company, 1966.
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| − | #{{note|nytimes1}}''New York Times,'' 2 May 1970.
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| − | =={{Further reading label}}==
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| − | ==={{FAIR wiki articles label}}===
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| − | {{BookofAbrahamWiki}}
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| − | ==={{FAIR web site label}}===
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| − | {{BookofAbrahamFAIR}}
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| − | ===Videos===
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| − | {{Video:Hauglid:2006:Kirtland Egyptian Papers}}
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| − | ==={{External links label}}===
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| − | {{BookofAbrahamLinks}}
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| − | ==={{Printed material label}}===
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| − | {{BookofAbrahamPrint}}
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| − | [[de:Kirtland_Egyptian_Papers]]
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| − | {{Articles Footer 1}} {{Articles Footer 2}} {{Articles Footer 3}} {{Articles Footer 4}} {{Articles Footer 5}} {{Articles Footer 6}} {{Articles Footer 7}} {{Articles Footer 8}} {{Articles Footer 9}} {{Articles Footer 10}}
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| | + | <!-- PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE --> |
| | [[Category:Book of Abraham]] | | [[Category:Book of Abraham]] |
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| − | [[fr:Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri/Kirtland Egyptian Papers]] | + | [[de:Buch Abraham/Kirtland Egyptian Papers]] |
| | + | [[es:El Libro de Abraham/Papeles egipcios de Kirtland]] |
| | + | [[pt:O Livro de Abraão/Documentos Egípcios Kirtland]] |
